It’s early on a Friday afternoon when I meet Colman Domingo at the L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills. We greeted each other in the dimly lit lobby and found a private place to talk. It’s been a long week of promotion for their latest projects, Netflix’s “Rustin,” based on the life of civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, and the recently released remake of “The Color Purple,” adapted from the Broadway musical version from Alice. Walker’s book, with Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones as producers.
In recent days, there have been several red carpet appearances in Los Angeles culminating in a big screening for press and industry insiders the night before we meet. It’s a grueling schedule, to be sure, but only appropriate for the work that went into the production.
Domingo plays the dominant but painfully insecure gentleman in one of the most difficult shoots he has ever participated in, he says. “Making a musical film is very difficult. It’s not just about making a movie. You have musical elements; You have singing, dancing, rehearsals and choreography and then also these huge performance pieces. So it takes a lot, and then you have the depth of character and trauma, character work, details and relationships that you have to navigate,” he adds.
While Mister is a demanding role, “it’s really about these three women. And Mister supports these women in the most complicated, violent, abusive and painful way, where they have to navigate this disturbing territory to find a healing redemption. But he is the catalyst for that, because he carries his trauma with him. “So we had to find a really delicate balance of being… having someone’s love on set every day.”
Domingo says he drew on his own traumas for the role and that the cast found it so difficult to get to some emotional places that they sought emotional and spiritual support. “Fancy [Barrino] and I had to find moments just to pray with each other, to hug each other between takes, knowing that we have to do really horrible work, but it’s necessary so that people can see themselves and find ways and access to get out of the situation . . Oprah would call me to check the cast. I wanted to make sure that I not only did it right for her but also for Quincy Jones and our fellow producers, and that it did right for Alice Walker. So I didn’t take it lightly.”
Colman Domingo plays Bayard Rustin in “Rustin.”
(David Lee/Netflix)
Not taking his career too lightly has resulted in a series of triumphs for the 54-year-old Philadelphia native who majored in journalism at Temple University. “I was featured in my school newspaper at Overbrook High School, the same high school as Will Smith,” he recalls. “That’s where I found a lot of joy. I love writing newspapers, reading stories and discovering them. So at first I dedicated myself to writing news,” he says, but he soon discovered that he couldn’t dedicate himself to it.
“I was very fluent in my writing. That was my impulse. How do I tell a story and reflect the times? So I was a [journalism] older for five minutes,” he says, laughing. “No, I would say for two semesters. I switched to RTF, which is radio, television, and film, which sounds lofty when you’re exploring critical theory, but that’s when I took an acting class as an elective. One of my teachers told me: “I think you have a talent, I would be very curious to see what would happen if you explored it.” “
Colman Domingo plays the abusive man in “The Color Purple.”
(Ser Baffo / Warner Bros. Pictures)
He did it and took charge. “More than anything my roots are solid in theater. I wanted to be a child of the theater: Shakespeare and musicals, Ibsen and Chekhov. So I really took that path and that’s what led me to other things that I do.”
His professional career includes writing plays and acting on Broadway, the West End and the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. Ella’s Edith de ella Productions, the partnership she launched with her husband, Raúl, has a series created with Showtime and first-look deals with AMC, in addition to other projects launching later this year. Through it all, she’s been a constant presence on popular television with AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead,” which ended its eight-season run in the fall, and HBO’s teen drama “Euphoria.”
“Rustin” was the union of the “north star,” as Domingo likes to say about good fortune. Dustin Lance Black and Julian Breece had written the script and were looking for the right producers just as Barack and Michelle Obama signed a deal between their production company Higher Ground and Netflix. It turns out that Bayard Rustin had been an inspiration to the former president and was given the green light. Director and playwright George C. Wolfe, with whom Domingo had worked on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” signed on to direct.
“And he decided that I would be his Bayard, which made me feel very blessed,” Domingo says.
“I feel like for me, for my career, ‘Rustin’ is a pure expression of what I’m trying to say in the world, with its impact, and also ‘Color Purple.’ “I feel very proud that they’re both happening at the same time… and maybe they came at this point in my life where I’m ready for it.”
